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The Staff of Asclepius vs the Caduceus

Medical organizations or groups often utilize the symbols above to link or relate with the practice of medicine. But what is really the ideal symbol for medical. Read the facts below.

Asclepius

Asclepius (an ancient greek physician deified as the god of
medicine) is traditionally depicted as a bearded man wearing a robe that
leaves his chest uncovered and holding a staff with his sacred single
serpent coiled around it, (example right) symbolizing renewal of youth
as the serpent casts off its skin. The single serpent staff also
appears on a Sumerian vase of c. 2000 B.C. representing the healing god
Ningishita, the prototype of the Greek Asklepios.

Caduceus

Caduceus is a winged staff with two snakes
wrapped around it. It was an ancient astrological symbol of commerce and
is associated with the Greek god Hermes, the messenger for the gods,
conductor of the dead and protector of merchants and thieves.

From the description alone it is obvious that the ideal symbol for medical should be rod or staff of Asclepius.

Professional and patient centered organizations around the world
including the World Health Organization use the "correct" and
traditional symbol of medicine, the staff of Asclepius with a single serpent encircling a staff, classically a rough-hewn knotty tree limb.

On the biblical side:

Numbers 21:8

The Lord said to Moses, “Make a snake and put it up on a pole; anyone who is bitten can look at it and live.”

Numbers 21:9So Moses made a bronze snake and put it up on a pole. Then when anyone was bitten by a snake and looked at the bronze snake, they lived.

Clearly the bible depicts a single snake, not two.

It is relatively common, especially in the United States, to
find the caduceus, with its two snakes and wings, used as a symbol of medicine
instead of the correct Rod of Asclepius, with only a single snake. This usage
is erroneous, popularised largely as a result of the adoption of the caduceus
as its insignia by the U.S. Army Medical Corps in 1902.

However, whatever symbol you are using, what is important are the actions that you do to save the lives of many and to educate people the art of saving lives...